Korean Comprehensive

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About The Korean Language

The Korean language is the official language of both North and South Korea, where there are more than 60 million speakers between the two countries. At least an additional 10 million Korean speakers live in China, the United States, and in other countries.

The classification of Korean has always been problematic for linguists, and like Basque has long been considered an "isolate". Many theories have been developed in order to argue a proper classification for Korean, although none have been definitively proven. The most commonly- accepted theory classifies Korean as a member of a large family of languages which includes such startling members as Turkish, Hungarian, Finnish, and Japanese.

There are two main dialects of Korean: Phyong'yang is considered the official language of North Korean, and the Seoul dialect enjoys official status in South Korea. Both are governed and standardized by their respective governments. The native speakers on the Pimsleur tapes speak the Seoul dialect, and by modeling your pronunciation after theirs you should be able to travel to South Korea and make yourself understood with little difficulty.

Why The Pimsleur System Works

The late Dr. Paul Pimsleur was much more than a language teacher. He did research on how both children and multi-lingual adults learn languages and discovered key principles that unlocked the mystery of how we learn languages.

The Pimsleur programs provide a method of self-practice with an expert teacher and native speakers in lessons specially designed to work with the way the mind naturally acquires language information. The various components of language -- vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar -- are all learned together without rote memorization and drills. Using a unique method of memory recall developed by renowned linguist, Dr. Paul Pimsleur, the programs teach listeners to combine words and phrases to express themselves the way native speakers do. By listening and responding to thirty minute recorded lessons, students easily and effectively achieve spoken proficiency. » The Pimsleur Method «